Flashback - Diane Carey [71]
"Apparently," Kes added, "the parasite used the childhood memory of the falling girl as camouflage."
"Creating a false memory," the Doctor concluded, "so traumatic that the mind would repress it. And that's where it would live in person after person, hiding in a part of the brain that the conscious mind would want to avoid at all costs. It's a remarkable evolutionary adaptation."
He sounded almost admiring of the clever little . . . whatever that was.
"Well," he finished, "now that we've solved the mystery of Commander Tuvok's troubled past, you're both released. Both your neural profiles are perfectly normal."
Janeway peered at the screen, feeling as if she
ought to give the entity a name or something. Pretty valiant, to stay alive and fight through centuries of human minds, then actually make it out into space.
Had this little thing spawned on Earth? Or had it been brought there by visiting aliens? No such visitation had ever been proven conclusively, but perhaps the proof was lying before her. If this thing could be analyzed and proven not to be native to Earth's biomass, then they'd know, wouldn't they? After all, it couldn't have ridden in on a meteor if it had to have a living, conscious host.. .
So many possibilities!
"When it sensed the death of the host," she went on, thinking, "it would leave to find another." She looked at Tuvok. "That's why it went from Valtane to you."
Kes turned to her. "What about the girl? Did she ever really exist? Or did the organism invent the memory?"
"Memory's a tricky thing," the Doctor said. "If it was a real event, it's been buried and copied and twisted so many times, there's no way to tell what really happened."
"No," Janeway said, "but no monocellular parasite can invent the kind of deep emotional fear and regret as I felt-as we felt when that little girl fell over the side. Such a creature might be able to mimic the terror in that child's face or the cloying doubt and guilt, but no one but a conscious, intelligent being can actually create them. Someone, at some time in the distant past, on some planet somewhere, went over a cliff. And someone else had
to live with it for the rest of his life. We're the legacy of that moment, and of its very survival. Mr. Tuvok," she said, taking him by the arm, "let's try to get ourselves back to normal, shall we? I'd like to have you join me in my quarters for a quiet dinner. We have lots to talk about." "Yes, Captain," he said, finally at peace. " 'Lots.'"
The corridor of Voyager smelled clean and fresh, reminding Janeway oddly of the scent of the old Excelsior in its heyday. She thought of Captain Sulu and how he had tampered with Klingon relations, and held off a half-dozen Klingon ships, giving the Enterprise its chance to slip into enemy territory.
"I'm curious," she began as she and Tuvok strode away from sickbay together. "Did the Excelsior save Kirk and McCoy?"
"Not directly," Tuvok confirmed. "We were forced to retreat back to Federation space. As usual, Captain Kirk provided his own means of escape. But we did play a pivotal role in the subsequent battle at Khitomer during a second assassination attempt. The same group of malcontents attempted to kill the president of the Federation. Captain Kirk and Captain Sulu headed off the plot in time. I believe they were acting in cooperation all along."
Janew ay eyed him cannily. "Mr. Tuvok, if I didn't know you better, I'd say you miss those days on Excelsior."
"On the contrary," he told her, "I do not experience nostalgic feelings."
Garbage.
She smiled.
"But there are times," he went on when she paused long enough to prod him, "when I think back to those days, of meeting Kirk, Spock, and the others . . . and I am pleased that I was part of it."
"In a funny way," she said, "I feel like I was part of it, too."
Tuvok offered her a long, penetrating gaze of unknown origin. "Then, perhaps, you can be nostalgic for both of us, Captain."
"Fly her apart, then!"
Captain Sulu
Star Trek